Birds of Indian Subcontinent

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Subfamily VANELLINAE

Subfamily VANELLINAE.

This subfamily contains a very large number of genera, mostly of the larger Plovers and Lapwings and it also embraces those genera included in the Lobi-vanellinae, a group which Lowe created provisionally but now considers insufficiently distinct from his Vanellinae to deserve recognition. His diagnosis of the Vanellinae is as follows : -

Pluvialine forms in which the lacrymals are not free but are merged in the supra-orbital ring, in which there is a conspicuous foramen for the nasal duct immediately caudad of the nasals, in which the supra-orbital grooves are deeply sculptured, often perforated with foramina, and extend well back to the anterior margin of the parietals, and in which the supra-orbital rim is conspicuously raised, everted or corniced.